BAGHDAD, December 15 (IslamOnline.net) – Tens, and may be hundreds of thousands, of Iraqi voters will most likely be unable to cast their ballots in the general elections slated for January 30, 2005, either for being homeless or detained by the US-led forces.

Over 300.000 Iraqis, mostly Sunnis, have been forced to leave their homes in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, due to the continuous shelling that climaxed in a blistering air and ground sweep by US and Iraqi forces in November.

Some 10,000 US marines and army forces, alongside some 2,000 Iraqi national guard soldiers unleashed a long expected onslaught on the resistance hub Monday, November8 , capping long nights of massive US raids.

There are also tens of thousands of detainees, majority of which are also Sunnis, who are not subject to the Independent Election Commission in Iraq (IECI).

In statements to IslamOnline.net Tuesday December 14 , the electoral committee chief Sa’ad Abdel Wahab of the Iraqi Islamic Party (a Sunni who has recently decided to take part in the elections) criticized holding elections in Iraq as one constituency.

He explained that such a system might be acceptable in case of a stable situation, citing the fact that political parties and powers would then be able to rally the public everywhere.

"Under such unstable conditions and the evacuation of whole communities as it is the case in Fallujah, some 100.000 Sunni voters are not in a position to cast their ballots, even if election boycotters change their minds," he resumed.

The Fallujah evacuees have been dispersed among different Iraqi towns including Baghdad. They failed to get their December supply rations, with which they supposed to receive election cards, without which no one could vote.

"This means that supporters of a certain party in disturbed governorates may not cast their votes," Abdel Wahab added.

He further added the multi-constituency system was debated by the IECI; yet, the commission adopted the one-constituency system despite its points of weakness.

Association of Muslim Scholars’ spokesman Muthanna Harith Al-Dari, in a special meeting with IOL, explained the reason behind many Iraqi powers boycott of elections, citing technical considerations that do not guarantee the transparency of the Iraqi election system.

Among such considerations is the fact that the IECI has considered Iraq, despite its huge area, into one constituency and assigned to it 25 UN supervisors; of whom only seven have arrived.

35.000 Detainees

Within the same context, Abdel Wahab wondered about the votes of thousands of Iraqi detainees – mostly Sunnis – who are imprisoned in occupation jails.

The official of the Iraqi Islamic Party elaborated that "those detainees, amounting to 35.000, are not included under the IECI voter lists".

Abdel Wahab further cited the daily incursions perpetrated by the occupation troops and the Iraqi National Guardsmen as dangerous hurdles affecting the very meaning of elections, pointing out that such incursions have resulted in many people losing their official documents.

Regarding out-of-country voting for Iraqi expatriates, Abdel Wahab said that the process of selecting the 14 states, wherein the elections will be held, is not accurate.

He said that the reason is that the IECI "does not have maps on the Iraqi communities abroad and Iraq does not have embassies in most of those states so far."

UN International Organization for Migration, in charge of Iraqi expatriates' out-of-country voting, has declared Sunday December12 that Amman, Jordan, would host the polling center headquarters of out-of-country voting.

IECI

The IECI represents the highest executive and legislative power that manages the electoral process mechanism. It consists of seven independent members selected by the UN out of 1000 candidates.

The IECI supervises voter registration, determines eligibility criteria, approves political entities and eligible candidates.

In the elections, Iraqis will choose a 275 -member assembly that will write a permanent constitution.

If adopted in a referendum next year, the constitution would form the legal basis for another general election to be held by December,2005 .

But representatives of several Iraqi parties and leading political figures have been stepping up their campaign for delaying the general elections over the increasing deteriorating security conditions in the war-torn country.

Meeting Sunday, December 5, under the banner "Flawed Elections: Disputed Results", more than 200 Iraqi politicians and party officials warned that if the polls went ahead in the current climate of violence the results could be contested

UN Iraqi envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned that holding the Iraqi elections would be impossible unless "first and foremost security improves."